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Tom and Sue Martins Racing/Sailing Committee's 2022 Honorees
Tom and Sue Martins Racing/Sailing Committee's 2022 Honorees
Prepared by Vana Nespor
Tom:
We started sailing in 1980. We were on a cruise that stopped at St. Thomas, and we were having dinner at a restaurant on the pier. There were hundreds of sailboats out in the bay. We asked our server, “How do these people have all these sailboats?” And she said, “Well, most of them don't own the sailboats; they rent them.” I said, “You can just rent a sailboat?” She says, “Yeah, you have to show that you can sail then you just come down and instead of renting a condo, you rent a sailboat.”
We weren’t home for two days when Sue had us booked at the International Sailing School in Burlington, Vermont, for a four day on-water course on a 27 foot, Soling. The woman that owned the boat owned the sailing school. She was from Canada, and an Olympic racer. She’d bought a dozen of them and had them on Malletts Bay.
Two weeks before the course, they sent us a big book, as thick as a telephone book, on how to sail with a picture of the America’s Cup on the cover. The first morning we're sitting with our instructor, and he gets a big chalkboard and a piece of chalk, and says, “Okay, did you look at the book? And I said, “I read it two times. Sue was busy and only read it one and half times.” He looked at us in shock, took that piece of chalk, and threw it across the yard saying, “Let's get on the water!”
SUE:
The fourth day, I was out there by myself. Never sailed before in my life, and they send me out on this huge boat. The wind was blowing, the boat was heeling over so much that I was standing straight up with my feet on the centerboard trunk. (Laughing) I was yelling, and the instructor and Tom were just chitchatting on the safety boat. The instructor said, “Should we do something, and Tom told him, “Don't worry about her. She’s fine.” But, I was hooked. So soon as we got home, we bought a 26’ MacGregor with a cabin and everything. We could sleep on it. The kids were young and we’d just yell, “Okay, kids, move to the other side,” when we had to tack. We’d sleep out on it on weekends. Anchor out on Friday night, get up in the morning and go into town for breakfast, then go straight back out. We won all our championships in that boat. It was the only one we had.
TOM:
My grandfather, when I was growing up, he had an old cabin cruiser. And I used to work on that with him, be his cabin boy, but I hadn’t sailed again until we took that course. We got tired of trailering the MacGregor after the first season so we joined the PVYC in 2000. Back then there was very few families. We've watched the club over the twenty plus years change from being a good old boys club where no one ever went in the pool to more of a family resort. It's more organized. They have a lot more activities, and there's always improvements and maintenance. It's a pleasure to see that happen. When we joined the PVYC, some guys were competitive, but some guys were out there just to mess around. And, like any sport you play up to the level of your competition. Well, these days I think the sailing in our club has upgraded. You know, Andy Piccus brought that along. So now, you’ve got to pay attention. I see it in Paul and Kim. Of course, I hate being beaten, but to see them coming up, getting better, wow!
SUE:
I remember one race when we had first started, and we didn't know what we were doing and didn't know what the course was. But, we thought well that’s okay we'll just follow everyone else. And all of a sudden, we're in front of everyone. And, we’re thinking what do we go now?
TOM:
We got good at figuring out exactly where we needed to be and what we could get away with. [Laughing] That boat had a heel meter on it, and whenever it got to 15%, Sue would start screaming.
SUE:
[Laughing] I was the rail meat. Lots of times there was more of me out of the boat then in it. The scariest was once when I was literally holding onto the shrouds for dear life. I had to wrapped them around both my hands.
TOM:
Sue’s very good crew, a great sailor. When we were taking that course, she had to navigate these little channels under sail through the moorings that looked like a sailboat parking lot. And, years ago, we had two sunfish. We’d put the kids in them with us and practice trying to hit each other’s boat with a tennis ball. She was fierce. On the MacGregor, she would literally handle three head sails, changing them out in the course of a race. She'd go from a standard sail, to the 150, to the Drifter on the run and do it quick as a whip. I mean, that made a huge difference in our winning. My hat's off to the guys who sail alone because they're doing everything. I'm very humble when it comes to that. I know what it takes and, and how easy it is to make mistakes. These guys, like Pete and Andy, are fantastic.
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